In the middle ages the earth was 30C warmer than it is now. There were no glaciers in the tropical
So too is the effect that the sun is having on our climate. The sun is hotter now than it has been for the past 11,400 years, according to a variety of sources. This inevitably has an impact on the earth’s climate. Recent Danish Space Centre research appears to confirm this. While the earth can absorb some of the new heat from the sun, some of it is reflected back, warming the atmosphere.
Another inconvenient truth is that there has been no atmospheric warming over the last 70 years, according to a significant group of scientists (see www.co2science.org ) . Data from the 1,221 sites of the US Historical Climatology Network demonstrate this – many places are actually cooler. This is not the same as surface warming, which is taking place. What is more, the climate change models used to predict the “catastrophic future” of the planet cannot be used to model past behaviour of the planet – that is, when they are used to reconstruct the last one hundred years they are inaccurate, predicting a much warmer climate than actually occurred.
In the last thirty years, a great expanse of
It is claimed that there is a consensus within the scientific community about climate change. There is not. 17,000 scientist signed a petition some years ago indicating their dissent. More recently, 41 of the leading scientists in
The Director of the
Scientists that do not follow the consensus, such as Bjon Lomberg, (author of The Skeptical Environmentalist) are castigated by others for challenging their view – yet the very foundation of science is challenge. “Group think” dominates and controls the flow of research funds and impairs our ability to get to the heart of the issues. Governments and the UN use science selectively. A recent report of a
There is, however, consensus that the “hockey stick” view of climate change – showing a relatively flat line that suddenly spikes at an angle upwards between the years 1800 – 2000 – is unfit for use and is based on questionable assumptions and a manipulation of different kinds of data. Yet many continue to use it. There is no consensus on the temperature of the last thousand years, other than recognition that the earth has been warmer than it is now.
What all of this has lead to is misguided policies, public fear about the future and a discrediting of science. It also leads to a focus on the wrong thing. The real focus needs to be on the future mix of our energy supplies, especially now that we know both oil and natural gas are (or will soon be) past peak production – supplies are in decline. We need reliable, abundant sources of energy. We need to revisit nuclear power, focus on substitutes to natural gas and oil and leverage investments in new energy technologies. This is the real scientific agenda.
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